According to Statistics Canada, total investment in building construction increased 1.3 percent to $15.9 billion in February, the fourth consecutive month-over-month growth. Gains were reported in all components of residential and non-residential investment.
Investment in residential construction rose 1.4 percent to $10.7 billion in February. Investment in single-unit construction increased 1.9 percent to $5.2 billion. This rate of growth surpassed that observed in the multi-unit component (+0.9 percent to $5.6 billion), partially due to major projects in the Vancouver area. Multi-unit gains in British Columbia outweighed declines in seven other provinces.
Non-residential investment was up 1.2 percent to $5.1 billion in February. Ontario (+$39.4 million) and Quebec (+$29.1 million) reported the largest gains, while Alberta continued to decline, down 0.7 percent to $678.9 million.
The commercial component represented the majority of growth in the non-residential sector, up 1.5 percent to $3.0 billion nationally. Ontario (+2.7 percent to $1.1 billion) and Quebec (+3.5 percent to $650.4 million) contributed the most to the gains, which more than offset the declines reported in six provinces.
Meanwhile, investment in construction for the industrial (+1.0 percent to $937.9 million) and institutional (+0.6 percent to $1.2 billion) components also increased month over month.